


Lemons

by KatiaSwift



Category: Deep Dish Nine (Fandom), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Deep Dish Nine, Gen, M/M, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-16
Updated: 2013-09-16
Packaged: 2017-12-26 18:09:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/968712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatiaSwift/pseuds/KatiaSwift
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For most people, when life gives them lemons, they make lemonade.</p>
<p>When life gives Julian Bashir lemons, he pays too much for them and brings them home to Garak for Valentine's Day.</p>
<p>(Lemon drops, anyways.)</p>
<p>A short, fluffy tale of Deep Dish Nine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lemons

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to the lovely tinsnip for beta-ing this for me, and for giving me the original prompt in the first place! This is my first Deep Dish Nine work, and it couldn't have been done without her. :-)
> 
> Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you! /bows

“Miles, this isn’t funny,” Julian had said. Crossing his arms, he had glared at his best friend in an attempt to reign in his laughter.

Unfortunately, Miles hadn’t had the same viewpoint on the matter as Julian. “You _do_ realize you’re asking me for advice on what to get him for Valentine’s Day, yeah? You’re askin’ me! About what to get Garak!” Miles had told him, continuing to laugh.

Julian had sighed. “Miles, come on. I’m serious. I need help.”

When he’d gotten no response other than more chuckles from his friend, he’d tried a different approach. “What are you getting Keiko?”

To his chagrin, Miles had laughed harder. Julian really hadn’t seen anything funny about his question until his best friend had told him that he’d gotten his wife a lacy negligee as a gift.

_That_ had shut Julian right up for sure.

 

So now he’s on his own, in a giant candy store, with no help whatsoever on what to get Garak, and he’s starting to regret not asking the Dax sisters for help. Julian had reasoned that they would be annoying and bouncy and no real help at all, but it’s pretty clear that he needs the magic touch of someone who knows what they’re doing. Because he has absolutely no clue.

Julian’s hesitant to call him his ‘boyfriend’, for two reasons: one, he’s trying to sort out his sexuality and doesn’t really want anything to have labels yet, and two, he’s still not quite sure what he and Garak actually are.

“Shit,” Julian whispers under his breath, staring at the giant racks, full of every kind of candy imaginable. His task would have been easy if there had been any Cardassian candy, but there isn’t.

“Of course,” he mumbles to himself, “I _had_ to come to the candy store in _Little Bajor_. Of _course_ they don’t have Cardassian candy.”

Do Cardassians even have candy?

He gets a few nasty looks from the Bajoran women working behind the counter for saying the word ‘Cardassian’, but at this point, he’s so fed up with this whole thing that he doesn’t really care.

 

It’s halfway through his shopping trip that he remembers Garak mentioning something to him about him having a problem with chocolate. Julian’s not quite sure what this means- does chocolate make him sick? Does he not like chocolate?

Whatever else it means, one thing is clear: Julian can’t take the easy road out and just get chocolate.

He swears so loudly that everybody in the store hears him. At least he’s pretty sure they all do. At this point, he’s truly shocked with himself. Valentine’s Day is supposed to bring out the best in people, but Julian, who takes pride in his ability to not swear, is cursing a blue streak.

“This is a _terrible_ holiday,” he grumbles, receiving another disapproving look from the woman behind the counter.

It comes with only small comfort when Julian realizes that if Garak hadn’t been allergic to chocolate, he would have had to have that age-old debate in his head: dark chocolate or milk chocolate?

Hell, even _thinking_ about thinking about it makes him shudder.

 

Julian knows nothing about candy. Well, he knows that it’s a proper Valentine’s Day gift, but most of these candies are from places like Turkmenistan and Lesotho and have names that he can’t even pronounce. He’s never even realized that Turkmenistan and Lesotho are countries.

It’s around this point that he begins to feel a little hopeless. Does he have to buy candy for Garak? Why does it have to be candy? He could just get him a nice book, or some rolls of cloth for his sewing, nice and cheap from JoAnn Fabrics--

Oh, he should be _ashamed_. JoAnn Fabrics, _really_. Garak would _kill_ him. And knowing Garak, that statement might not actually be just an exaggeration, either.

 

When Julian finds the little shelf with the jar of lemon drops on it, he almost feels like crying. Finally, something he can recognize. A short conversation with one of the Bajoran employees confirms Julian’s original assumption that the candies are lemon drops. Thankful that the jar in his hands is full of little bits of lemony goodness, rather than something awful made with sugar and fish, and he shells out a rather ridiculous portion of a day’s salary and makes his way home.

 

(His efforts are not in vain. After giving Garak the jar of lemon drops and learning that they’re his favorite, Julian is thoroughly kissed and ends up _quite_ satisfied.)


End file.
